‘You can resign.’ Tempers flare as Fresno council members clash over Chinatown cleanup
A heated exchange between Fresno councilmembers on Thursday ended after one invited another to resign from the City Council.
An argument started on the dais over a $143,000 contract — which began as a $250,000 contract — to clean up Chinatown sponsored by Councilmember Miguel Arias.
Councilmember Garry Bredefeld said the contract was an example of corruption because it was not subject to the routine bidding process. “You should be ashamed to follow this corruption,” he said.
The $143,000 contract on Thursday’s agenda was rewarded with a 6-1 vote to Fresno-based Olympic Property Services, which is owned by Jim Verros, who is a political analyst for NBC affiliate KSEE 24 and other agencies.
Olympic also contracts with the High-Speed Rail Authority to clean up the rail’s property, which abuts Chinatown.
Bredefeld cast the sole “no” vote.
Because the council declared an emergency during the coronavirus pandemic, it has the power to reward the contract without a bidding process, which is typically used for any contract of more than $143,000.
City Manager Wilma Quan said the contract should have gone through the normal bidding process. “If we weren’t going to go internally, this should have been put out to bid,” she said.
City staffers said they could provide the same services to Chinatown at almost $110,000 cheaper than the originally estimated by Olympic.
The contract was placed on the agenda at $250,000 but was lowered to $143,000 after a motion from Arias. Bredefeld said the difference between the initial bid and what was voted on was an example of why the bidding process is important.
Neither the estimates from Olympic nor city staffers were provided to City Council, according to Bredefeld, who said he had to seek it out before the vote.
“This isn’t about Chinatown. This is about a corrupt process,” Bredefeld said.
Arias said the city’s internal proposal wouldn’t do enough to clean up the area, which has long been underserved. “The city manager has had two years to clean up Chinatown and so far nothing has been done,” he said.
The city’s waste department is understaffed and can take 10 to 15 days to address to those trash heaps that are building up in Chinatown, Arias said.
“We’re trying to keep the garbage from becoming a fire hazard,” Arias said. “We’ve had a dozen fires in Chinatown alone.”
The Chinatown contract would provide for weekly cleanings, plus the power washing of buildings and sidewalks, according to the contract.
The city has similar contracts for the Tower District and along Fulton Street downtown in highly trafficked areas. City staffers noted the Fulton work is done entirely by city employees.
The Chinatown Fresno Executive Director Jan Minami said she’s heard many promises over the years for cleanup in the area, so she had her doubts.
Still, she supports any effort to improve Chinatown. “I’m concerned about both sides of Ventura. There are so many tents,” she said. “(I support) anything where people are addressing cleanup.”
Emotions get heated
Before the contract was adopted, some council members got into an argument that ended only after the council went to recess.
Bredefeld called out Councilmember Paul Caprioglio, who Bredefeld said was smiling during the argument.
Caprioglio pushed back. “Garry, you can resign if there’s so much corruption,” he said.
After the council meeting, Bredefeld called a news conference in which he repeated many of his points from during the council meeting. “This is about giving lucrative and overpaid contracts to friends,” he said.
Asked about Verros’ relationship to members of the council, Bredefeld said he didn’t have any direct knowledge Verros is a friend of anyone on the council.
Reached by phone, Verros said he is not friends with anyone on the council, noting his company has worked on a on-call basis with the city going back to when Councilmember Oliver Baines represented District 3.
Verros said his company is no “Johnny come lately” to Fresno, noting the city attorney had to give his OK to the contract before it could be awarded.
“I’m not an employee of the city, I’m not an employee of anyone on the council,” he said. “We’re a vendor that was called upon to come up with a few ideas to keep Chinatown clean.”
This story has been corrected from an earlier version.
This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 11:52 AM.
